Magical Shoe Wings

You may have seen them before, perhaps online or in a specialty shop, but you may not have thought about making your own.  Inexpensive, easy, just a little time needed perhaps while watching your favourite program or a movie.  Then 'voila'!  Adorable shoe wings for your wee one.

My little guy says he runs extra fast when he's wearing them!

A piece of craft felt, scissors, thread, needle and some freezer paper (not pictured).  I chose to hand stitch mine, so I used embroidery thread (thicker).  You could machine stitch if you would like to.

Print the pattern onto some freezer paper (onto the dull side), then iron the freezer paper onto the piece of craft felt.  The template I created was a great size for boys size 9 Converse high tops.  Give or take a size, you should find them ok.  If you are needing much bigger or smaller, then you will need to resize the pattern accordingly.

Cut out the wings.  Peel the freezer paper off of one of each side (off one left and one right wing).  Using a pin, attatch to of the same wings together (both lefts together, both rights together). 

Start stitching the two layers together, while creating the wing pattern.  I never said I was a great sewer by the way lol...

Once both sides are fully stitched, carefully peel away the freezer paper pattern.  If it gets stuck in some of the small spaces, use your sewing needle to help pick it out.

Now to measure where to put the lace holes.  Lay the right wing, against the right foot shoe and using a marker, place dots on the backside of the wing where each of the holes need to be.

*You will notice on the provided pattern that the side of the wing closest to the lace holes has now been curved in to work better with the shape of the shoe.

Cut slits into the wings where each hole was marked, then stitch around the openings to strengthen them a bit.

Lace them on!  You could even spray them with a wee bit of Scotchguard spray if you have some.

They lay pretty flat, but if you want them to stay stiff, you could spray with a little spray starch, lay a thin tea towel or cloth over top and give them a press with an iron on low heat, before lacing them onto the shoes.

My little boy was so excited to wear his shoe wings, he actually 'posed' for me to take pictures of them.  A rarity!

Download shoe wing template here.